1955 - Theater, Film

Theater, Film

Theater: The Desperate Hours by Joseph Hayes (who has adapted his 1954 novel) 2/10 at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theater, with Karl Malden, Paul Newman, Kendall Clark, North Carolina-born George Grizzard, 26, Patricia Peardon, 212 perfs.; Bus Stop by William Inge 3/2 at New York's Music Box Theater, with Kim Stanley, Albert Salmi, 478 perfs.; Ping-Pong (Le Ping-pong) by Arthur Adamov 3/2 at the Théâtre des Noctambules, Paris (Adamov's characters surrender themselves to a pinball machine in an endless, aimless game of chance intended to represent the ultimate futility of life; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams 3/24 at New York's Morosco Theater, with Barbara Bel Geddes, New York-born actor Ben (originally Biagio Anthony) Gazzara, 34, Mildred Dunnock, Illinois-born folk singer Burl Ives (originally Burl Icle Ivanhoe), 46, as "Big Daddy," 694 perfs.; Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee 4/21 at New York's National Theater, with Paul Muni as Clarence Darrow, Ed Begley as William Jennings Bryan in a drama based on the 1925 Scopes "monkey trial," 806 perfs.; A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller 9/29 at New York's Coronet Theater, with J. Carrol Naish, Van Heflin, Eileen Heckart, Jack Warden, 149 perfs.; The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (based on the late Holocaust victim's writings) 10/5 at New York's Cort Theater (to Ambassador Theater 2/26/1957), with Joseph Schildkraut, New York-born ingénue Susan Strasberg, 17 (daughter of Actors' Studio head Lee Strasberg), New York-born actor Jack Gilford, 47, Austrian-born actress Gusti Huber, 41, Lou Jacobi, 717 perfs.; No Time for Sergeants by New York-born playwright-novelist Ira Levin, 26, 10/20 at New York's Alvin Theater, with Andy Griffith, London-born actor Roddy McDowell, 27, Morgantown, W. Va.-born actor Don Knotts, 31, 796 perfs.; The Desk Set by Allentown, Pa.-born playwright William Marchant, 32, 10/24 at New York's Broadhurst Theater, with Shirley Booth, Brooklyn-born actor Louis Gossett Jr., 19, Elizabeth Wilson, Joyce Van Patten, St. Louis-born ingénue Doris Roberts, 24, 296 perfs.; The Chalk Garden by Enid Bagnold 10/26 at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theater, with Siobhan McKenna, Fritz Weaver, Betsy von Furstenberg, Gladys Cooper, Marian Seldes, 182 perfs. (it will have a run of 658 performance after it opens next May at London's Royal Court Theatre); A Hatful of Rain by New Jersey-born playwright Michael V. Gazzo, 32, 11/9 at New York's Lyceum Theater, with Ben Gazzara, Shelley Winters, Frank Silvera, Anthony Franciosa is about drug addiction, 398 perfs.; The Lark by Lillian Hellman (who has adapted a Jean Anouilh story) 11/17 at New York's Longacre Theater, with Julie Harris, Theodore Bikel, Boris Karloff, Toronto-born actor Christopher Plummer, 27, Montreal-born actor Joseph Wiseman, 37, sets and lighting by Jo Mielziner, incidental music by Leonard Bernstein, 229 perfs.; The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder (based on a German play that was based on an English novel) 12/5 at New York's Royale Theater (to Booth Theater 11/12/1956), with Glasgow-born actress Eileen Herlie, 35, Ruth Gordon, Loring Smith, Saskatchewan-born actor Arthur Hill, 33, 486 perfs.

Playwright Anne Crawford Flexner dies at Providence, R.I., January 11 at age 79; actress Ona Munson is found dead of a sleeping-pill overdose in her New York apartment February 11 at age 48; poet-playwright Paul Claudel dies of a heart attack at Paris February 23 at age 86; actress-dramatic coach Constance Collier of a heart attack at New York April 25 at age 75; Broadway producer John Golden of a heart attack at Bayside, N.Y., June 17 at age 80; playwright-actress Aurania Rouverol at Palo Alto, Calif., June 23 at age 69; actress Lily Cahill at her native San Antonio July 20 at age 70; producer-director Margo Jones of uremic poisoning at Dallas July 24 at age 42 after inhaling rug-cleaning fumes; actor Philip Loeb dies at New York September 1 at age 61; scene and costume designer Aline Bernstein of cancer at New York September 7 at age 74; actor Anthony Ross of a coronary thrombosis at New York October 25 at age 46; playwright Robert E. Sherwood of a heart attack at New York November 12 at age 59.

Television: Peter Pan 3/7 on NBC with Mary Martin in a live TV production of the Broadway musical that attracts the largest audience (65 to 75 million viewers) in history. Producer Fred Coe of Philco Television Playhouse fame has brought the show to television and receives wide acclaim.

Other TV: The Bob Cummings Show 1/2 on NBC with Cummings, Rosemary DeCamp (to 9/15/1959, 173 episodes); The Grove Family 1/7 on BBC is the first TV family serial to attract a mass audience; The $64,000 Question quiz show 6/7 on CBS with host Hal March is based on the radio show Take It or Leave It, whose top prize was $64. Sponsored by Revlon (whose CEO Charles Revson initially thinks it a big mistake), the new program builds an audience by having contestants return each week as their winnings increase exponentially from $2,000 to $4,000, etc., creating a tension that brings viewers back for more to make this the top-rated program on the air (to 11/2/58). New York-born Columbia University experimental psychology student Joyce Bauer Brothers, 28, has memorized the Ring Encyclopedia and in December wins $64,000 with her command of facts about prizefighting. By the end of the 1950s she will have her degree and, as Dr. Joyce Brothers, will be dispensing advice in a newspaper column and on TV shows. Advertisers put pressure on quiz-show producers to keep attractive contestants on the air in order to boost audience ratings (see 1958); The Johnny Carson Show 6/30 on NBC with 29-year-old Iowa-born, Nebraska-raised comedian Carson (to 9/22/1956); The Soupy Sales Show 7/4 on ABC with North Carolina-born pie-throwing comic Sales (Milton Hines), 29, (to 4/13/1962); The Lawrence Welk Show 7/2 on ABC (9/4/1971); Gunsmoke 9/10 on CBS with Minneapolis-born actor James Arness (James Aurness), 32 (as Marshall Matt Dillon), Joplin, Mo.-born actor Dennis Weaver, 31 (as deputy Chester Goode), Milburn Stone, Buffalo-born actress Amanda Blake (Beverly Neill), 24 (to 3/31/1975); The Phil Silvers Show (You'll Never Get Rich) 9/2 on CBS with Phil Silvers as Master Sgt. and con man Ernie Bilko, U.S. Army (stationed at Roseville, Kansas), Paul Ford; Sergeant Preston of the Yukon 9/29 on CBS with Richard Simmons (to 9/25/1958); The Honeymooners 10/1 on CBS with Brooklyn, N.Y.-born comedian Jackie Gleason, 39, Mount Vernon, N.Y.-born actor Art (Arthur) Carney, 36 (who landed on the Normandy Beach in June 1944), China-born actress Audrey Meadows (originally Audrey Cotter), 31 (to 5/9/1971); The Mickey Mouse Club 10/3 on ABC with "Mousketeers" Annette Funicello, Cubby O'Brien, Karen Pendleton, Cheryl Holdridge, and host Jimmie Dodd, who has composed the march "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E" (to 9/24/1959); Captain Kangaroo 10/3 on CBS with actor Bob Keeshan, now 28, in a morning show for preschoolers (Keeshan learned his craft in the Howdy Doody Show as Clarabell the Clown, and he now appears with a sugar-bowl haircut and walrus moustache wearing a uniform jacket with big pouch pockets, chatting with his friend Mr. Green Jeans [Hugh "Lumpy" Brannum] as he wanders through his Treasure House). His new show will continue for 30 years; The Mighty Mouse Playhouse 12/10 on CBS (Saturday morning cartoon show) (to 10/22/1966).

BBC acquires the venerable Ealing Studios in the London suburb and will use the facilities until 1979 for editing its TV films. Producer Michael Balcon cuts a deal with M-G-M to continue making films at Metro's Borehamwood studios.

Films: Elia Kazan's East of Eden with Julie Harris, Indiana-born actor James Dean (originally James Byron), 24, Raymond Massey, Burl Ives; John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy's Mister Roberts with Henry Fonda, James Cagney, Boston-born actor Jack (Uhler) Lemmon, 30, William Powell; Leslie Norman's The Night My Number Came Up with Michael Redgrave, Sheila Sim, Alexander Knox, Denholm Elliott, 33; Carl Dreyer's Ordet with Henrik Malberg, Emil Hass, Christiansen Preben, Lendorff Rye; Nicholas Ray's Rebel without a Cause with Natalie Wood, New York-born actor Sal (Salvatore) Mineo, 16, James Dean; Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night with Ulla Jacobsen, Harriet Andersson, Eva Dahlbeck, Jarl Kulle. Also: Frank Launder's The Belles of St. Trinians with Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, Hermione Baddeley, Beryl Reid; Richard Brooks's Blackboard Jungle with Canadian-born actor Glenn (originally Gwylyn) Ford, 39, Anne Francis; Daniel Mann's I'll Cry Tomorrow with Susan Hayward, New York-born actor Richard (originally Nicholas) Conte, 37; Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly with Ralph Meeker; Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wilfred Jackson's The Lady and the Tramp with Walt Disney animation, voices of Peggy Lee, Stan Freberg, et. al.; Delbert Mann's Marty with Ernest Borgnine in an adaptation of the 1953 Paddy Chayefsky television script; Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter with Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish; Joshua Logan's Picnic with William Holden, Chicago-born actress Kim (originally Marilyn) Novak, 22, Rosalind Russell; Daniel Mann's The Rose Tattoo with Anna Magnani, Burt Lancaster; Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai with Toshiro Mifune (as the 16th-century swordsman Musashi Miyamoto), Kaoru Yachigawa, Rentaro Mikumi; Brian Desmond-Hurst's Simba with Dirk Bogarde, London-born actress Virginia McKenna, 24; David Lean's Summertime with Katharine Hepburn, Bologna-born actor Rossano Brazzi, 38, in a film version of the Arthur Laurents play Time of the Cuckoo.

Silent-film star Theda Bara dies of cancer at Los Angeles April 7 at age 64; actor Walter Hampden of a stroke while en route to the M-G-M studio at Hollywood June 11 at age 75; James Dean is killed in an automobile accident near Paso Robles, Calif., September 30 at age 24 (ticketed 2 hours earlier for going 65 miles per hour in a 45-mile-per-hour zone, he crashes his Porsche Spyder sportscar head-on into a vehicle driven by Donald Turnupseed while speeding to the Salinas auto races); John Hodiak dies of a coronary thrombosis at Tarzana, Calif., October 19 at age 41; director Lloyd Bacon of a cerebral hemorrhage at Burbank November 15 at age 65.

Disneyland opens July 17 at Anaheim, 25 miles south of Los Angeles. Mickey Mouse originator Walt Disney has borrowed on his life insurance, stock holdings, house, and furniture to acquire an orange grove, cut it down, and finance construction of the Jungle River Ride, Mark Twain paddle-wheeler ride, and other attractions of Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland for the $17 million 244-acre amusement park. Its merry-go-round is a copy of the one at Los Angeles's Griffith Park.